5:00 p.m., Cairo Time (3)..Youssef Chahine’s masterpiece Al-Nasser Salah El-Din
Thursday 18/December/2025 - 05:22 PM
“I am the King of Jerusalem… the King of France… my friend… will put Richard on trial.”
Today, at my residence in London, I watched—perhaps for the hundredth time—Youssef Chahine’s masterpiece Al-Nasser Salah El-Din. Despite my full awareness of the film’s major historical inaccuracies, I remain captivated by the cinematic vision Chahine sought to convey with his customary genius.
I paused repeatedly at the character of “Arthur,” portrayed by the great Zaki Tolaymat. Although Arthur is a purely dramatic figure with no historical existence, the significance of his presence—and what he represents in the film—is precisely the message Youssef Chahine intended to deliver.
Arthur is, throughout, a warmonger who strives to ignite conflict and sabotage peace: at times by killing Richard’s envoys to Saladin and accusing Saladin of their murder; at other times by attempting to assassinate King Richard himself with a poisoned Arab arrow, pushing him to continue the war to seize Jerusalem and appoint Arthur himself as its king—an ambition Arthur had been plotting from the very beginning.
When all his schemes fail and his deception is exposed before King Richard, the film reaches its brilliant climax—the master scene.
Arthur, inside an iron cage, screams at the top of his lungs: “I am the King of Jerusalem… John is the King of France… my friend… will put Richard on trial…”
Thus ends the fate of every fool who seeks to play a role on the stage of life far beyond the talent God has granted him: to end up in an iron cage, screaming at the top of his voice,
“I am the King of Jerusalem.”
London: 5:00 p.m., Cairo Time.
